The image at the bottom of the page is a video. If it doesn’t play on the disc you purchased, follow the steps to the left.

The video content of “Woodworker’s Guide to SketchUp” is embedded within the text. It’s a cool feature that greatly enhances the learning experience. You read in detail about a technique, then you can watch a short video that shows you where to click and how to move the mouse. But, as with anything new, it isn’t always easy to use it. The first section of the book (it’s in the common PDF format) explains how to get it up and running. Some computers, however will balk at playing the video. When this happens, an error message appears sending the reader to an incredibly out of date link at Adobe. Here’s the fix, and this information is included with the disc when you purchase the book:

•Download and install the latest version of Adobe Reader to your computer. If you already have Reader installed, update it. This is a free download available from www.adobe.com. Many enhanced features of this book will not work if you view it in other software. If your computer is a Mac, this also applies to you. Enhanced features of this book will not work in Preview.

•Copy the entire contents of the disc to your computer’s hard drive. This will speed up viewing and searching in the book.

•A few customers have reported receiving an error message that says: “media requires an additional player” even though a media player has been designated in Adobe Reader as described in the book. The fix for this is to set Quick Time as the default player in Adobe Reader. If this doesn’t work the first time, un-install Quick Time from your machine, download a fresh version from www.apple.com/quicktime/, install and set as the player in Adobe Reader.

It only takes a few minutes, and it will change you’re experience from frustration to “wow, that’s cool.”

–Bob Lang